Another Learning Experience
by unlikelyRLshipper
Summary: D/L. Post-ep for 9.04, so spoilers ahead for that episode. A story of what happens after the Messer family heads home for the night.


**Well, it took a little bit longer than I hoped (massive re-writes will always do that to you), but here's the post-ep for 9.04 that I mentioned in my last post. I guess you could call it a companion piece to **_**Braver in Twos**_**, since I wrote this one with the other one in mind, but if you haven't read my other piece, you'll have absolutely no problem following the storyline here.**

**Thank you so much to everybody who read my last story, and a special shout-out to my reviewers Catty, webdlfan, and LoveShipper: thank you for taking the time to send some kind words back to me, they are very much appreciated! :)**

**Enjoy!**

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**Another Learning Experience**

As she, Danny and Lucy walked out of the precinct, Lindsay was feeling pretty good. She'd helped to identify their suspect Evan Wescott and he would be behind bars for a good long time where he couldn't hurt anyone. Her head was still pretty sore, but she'd been expecting that. Her vision had cleared up, so she could both see and hear her daughter's reaction to being tickled, and that in itself was more than enough to raise Lindsay's spirits.

On the car ride back to their apartment, she listened intently to Lucy, recapping her day while Danny said nothing, content to hold onto Lindsay's hand over the centre console and listen to the mother/daughter duo. Towards the end of their trip, Lucy started to nod off, overwhelmed by the excitement of the past two days and the car became silent, giving Lindsay the chance to reflect on her husband's behaviour today. He'd been fairly silent since he'd come back to get her from the hospital, letting her do most of the talking with his mother when they went to go collect Lucy. While his words were sparse, his physical presence was not. He'd kept a hand on her all day, most often holding her left hand and frequently brushing his fingers over her rings, almost like he was checking to make sure they were still there. By the way he'd so gingerly transferred her rings from his grandfather's dogtags back to her finger, she deduced that he'd been more affected by her injury and hospitalization than he wanted to admit. And then with the revelation this morning that Wescott had visited her in the middle of the night – to silence her, as they'd learned this evening – Lindsay knew that Danny was blaming himself for everything. She needed to put his mind at ease, but she knew that this was a conversation best left until after Lucy was in bed.

As they finally pulled onto their street, Lindsay put all her thoughts and worries aside for the moment, determined to just enjoy her evening with her family.

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Once they were safely behind the locked door of their apartment, Lindsay and Lucy were herded into the living room by Danny, who disappeared into the kitchen to go make dinner. Lindsay had been sitting down for only a few seconds before Lucy let out a small gasp.

"I almost forgot Mommy, I made you a card at Nona's house. I'll go get it."

Lucy quickly ran to her backpack and brought it back to the couch with her. After a bit of searching, she pulled out a folded piece of paper and handed it to her mother.

Like the picture from the day before, the front of the card was a drawing of Lindsay and Lucy together, standing in a garden of flowers holding hands. Opening it, Lindsay read the message in Lucy's slightly messy scrawl:

_Dear Mommy,_

_I am so glad you are home. I really missed you last night. I hope your head feels better soon. I love you._

_Love Lucy XOXO_

"Thank you sweetie, it's beautiful," Lindsay responded enthusiastically as she beamed down at her daughter.

Lucy returned her mother's grin. "You're welcome. Nona helped me with it, she wrote done what I wanted to say on another piece of paper and I copied it so I wouldn't make a mistake."

Lindsay bit back a laugh. Ever the perfectionist – like mother, like daughter. "You did a great job Lucy, I love my card." Lindsay pulled Lucy into her arms for a tight hug, brushing her lips against the top of the little girl's head.

"I love you Mommy."

"I love you too Lucy."

"Hey, what about me?" Danny teased as he came up behind them.

"Lucy was just showing me the card she made for me at your mom's house," Lindsay said as she lifted the card so Danny could see it over her shoulder.

"Great job Lucy." Danny leaned over the back of the couch to kiss the top of Lucy's head. "Dinner's going to be ready soon, so can you go unpack your stuff from Nona's and then go wash your hands?"

"But Daddy…" Lucy started, but after a few moments of silence, she sighed and stood up. "OK."

"Thank you baby."

As she watched her daughter trudge off to her room, Lindsay knew that she'd just missed a silent battle of wills between father and daughter. She assumed that he'd already talked to her about being extra good while Mommy was getting better, and though she appreciated the gesture, it wasn't necessary. She'd be good as new in a couple of days, but she could still deal with Lucy as she recuperated. More than anything, Lindsay just wanted to get back to normal, so she didn't need or want any special treatment.

"I'll help you with dinner, Danny." Lindsay managed to get up from the couch and take two steps before the room started spinning rapidly. A wave of nausea caused by her sudden dizziness washed over her and Lindsay started to feel her legs give out under her before two arms wrapped tightly around her and the last thing she saw before closing her eyes was the wall of Danny's chest.

"Linds!" There was a touch of panic in his voice and she was grateful that Lucy was out of the room for this. The poor girl was already traumatized enough.

"I'm fine Danny. Got up too quick," she muffled into his shirt.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes." Pulling back a bit from Danny, Lindsay reopened her eyes and focused on the room, which was standing still once more. Taking stock of the rest of her body, she no longer felt nauseous and though her legs still felt a bit wobbly, they were holding her up. "Really Danny, I'm OK."

The look he gave her said that he didn't truly believe her, but he did let her go. As she started once more for the kitchen, he quickly put an arm around her waist and re-directed her to her usual seat at the dining room table.

"Danny…"

"Don't move," he growled out before giving her a firm stare. Knowing that Lucy would be back at any minute, Lindsay relented, nodding her head in agreement. His face softened somewhat and he leaned down to press his lips to her temple before he headed back into the kitchen, leaving Lindsay to stare at his retreating form.

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The rest of the evening went fairly smoothly, dinner followed by a viewing of _Beauty and the Beast_ on DVD – Lucy felt it was very important to her mother's recovery that she get to watch whatever princess movie she wanted to, just as Lucy got to pick whatever movie she wanted when she wasn't feeling good. Best of all, Lucy remained completely unaware of the battle of wills being fought by her parents. Ever since her earlier dizzy spell, Danny had kept a close eye on Lindsay, glancing at her every couple of minutes throughout dinner to make sure she was still alright. Lindsay chose to ignore it at first, reminding herself that she'd not acted all that differently with Danny after he was shot and temporarily paralyzed. Just shortly after the movie started, Lindsay's head started to hurt, so she'd quietly asked him for a couple of aspirin and a glass of water. Once he'd brought them back and sat down again, it started to feel like she couldn't go more than a few seconds without his eyes turning to her. After that, his actions were harder to ignore because she knew that he was just being ridiculous. Seriously, she'd been hit in the head – it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that she'd have headaches for the next couple of days, but it also didn't mean something was wrong with her.

Eventually, when Lindsay couldn't take it anymore she shot Danny a death glare over Lucy's head. All he did was stare back at her, unbothered by her annoyance. Rolling her eyes at him, she turned back to the movie, deciding to ignore him altogether for the rest of the night until Lucy was asleep and they finally had the chance to talk.

Towards the end of the movie, Lucy fell asleep and Lindsay could feel herself nodding off as well. One minute she was watching the final battle in the castle and then the next thing she knew the TV and DVD player were off and Danny was leaning over to wake Lucy up.

"Daddy?"

"It's time for bed, Lucy."

"Can Mommy put me to bed?"

Danny shook his head slowly. "Not tonight. She still needs more time for her head to feel better."

Lindsay was a little annoyed that Danny took it upon himself to answer for her, but he wasn't wrong. "Maybe tomorrow night, OK Lucy?"

Lucy turned to look at Lindsay, a small smile on her face. "OK Mommy. Good night. I love you."

"I love you too honey. Sweet dreams." After a hug and a kiss, Lucy went off to her room all by herself.

Before Lindsay could say anything to her husband, he was in front of her, gently lifting her into his arms.

"Put me down, I'm capable of walking," she groused at him, her annoyance level through the roof now.

He ignored her, continuing to carry her off to their bedroom. Once he put her down on the bed, he grabbed her PJs and handed them to her, leaving the room to go attend to Lucy. Lindsay changed in a huff and in an act of defiance, walked all by herself to the bathroom. She was careful not to get up too quickly from the toilet and she leaned on the vanity as she brushed her teeth just as a precaution, not wanting to give Danny any further fuel for his overbearing behaviour. She made it back to their bedroom without incident, but as soon as she lay down on top of the covers, she felt the exhaustion kick in and her head went from a dull ache to a steady throb. Closing her eyes to lessen the pain, Lindsay started to plan how she was going to deal with her overprotective husband.

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"Lindsay! Lucy! Where are you?"

Upon hearing her name, Lindsay's eyes started to flutter open. It took her a few moments to figure out where she was, he head a little fuzzy and still aching. Glancing over at the clock on her nightstand, she realized that she'd fallen asleep waiting for him nearly three hours ago. Noticing the aspirin bottle and glass of water beside the clock, she quickly downed two more pills and looked back at her sleeping husband behind her. Starting to wonder whether her head injury was causing her to hear things, she was about to go back to sleep when Danny called out to her and their daughter again, his voice rising in panic and worry. Lindsay reached out for his shoulder, shaking him lightly.

"Danny, wake up. You're dreaming."

He didn't seem to hear her. "Linds! Lucy!"

Lindsay knew she needed to stop his nightmare before he became anymore panicked and woke Lucy up. Shifting closer to him, she laid one hand gently on his chest and put her lips right to his ear. "Dan, I need you to wake up. I'm right here babe, just open your eyes for me."

At first she wasn't sure whether he had heard her, and as she was about to speak again, she felt him placing a hand over hers on his chest. Pulling back to look at him, she saw that his eyes were open, but also confused and unfocused. "Linds?"

The worry in his voice sent a wave of guilt washing over Lindsay – for falling asleep before they could talk, for being so annoyed with him when he was clearly struggling with what had happened in the last two days, for not being more sensitive to his needs instead of her own stubborn pride. Smiling at him softly, she used her free hand to run through his hair to try and calm him down. "Yeah Danny, it's me. Everything's alright, you were just dreaming. Lucy and I are safe, you came and found us at the plaza, remember?"

"But you hit your head. You were unconscious and there was blood on your forehead. Lucy was terrified and I didn't know what to do because you wouldn't wake up…"

Realizing she needed a more drastic plan to get Danny's attention, since he was still half out of it and on the verge of tears, Lindsay pulled her hand out from under his and used it to shift herself so she was lying on top of him. Keeping her face close to his, she hoped her physical weight would help drive her words home.

"Danny, I'm safe and so is Lucy. My head's going to be fine. You did everything right, none of this is your fault."

He finally seemed to really see her, but his anxiety level was still high. "But if I hadn't gone to get another balloon, or if we hadn't been there at all…"

"Stop Danny. There was absolutely no way for us to know something was going to happen, and you can't fixate on the 'what ifs'. I know that's not always easy to do, but second guessing yourself and your decisions, that's no way to live. You did what you should've done: put Lucy first. You made sure she was alright, you calmed her down, you protected her, you brought her home last night…"

"I wish I hadn't," he interjected, starting to fidget underneath her. Taking it as a sign that he needed some space, Lindsay lifted herself back off him and re-situated herself into a sitting position on her side of the bed. She watched as Danny grabbed his emergency pair of glasses and put them on so he could see her, and she smiled to herself because they reminded her of the Danny she first fell in love with. She remained silent until he collected his thoughts and when he finally turned to face her, she reached out to take his hand, lacing their fingers together to encourage him.

"I didn't want to leave you all alone at the hospital last night, but I knew I couldn't keep Lucy there any longer and there was no way in hell the nurses wouldn't have kicked is out anyways – we were already there after visiting hours as it was. There were at least a couple of times where I was seriously considering going back once Lucy and I got home, because we were both missing you, but we stuck it out together. And then when you woke up this morning talking about me showing up in the middle of the night – at first I thought it was all in your head, but once I figured out it had really happened and it was Wescott who'd been there, my heart stopped. He was there to kill you, Lindsay, so how can I ever stop regretting leaving you there all by yourself?"

And there it was: the crux of what was bothering Danny. She couldn't really blame him, though, because she'd be feeling the same if their roles were reversed. It had scared her too, finding out why Wescott was at the hospital, but hearing the reason why she'd been spared had quickly shifted her focus from the fear to a deep sense of gratitude for her family and especially for her daughter. She knew that trying to get Danny to see things the same way would be a tough sell, but she had to try. "But he didn't go through with it because he saw that I had a child."

Danny gave her a skeptical look. "C'mon Linds, you know that that was just lucky, that Lucy's drawing was under your hand and not up on the wall or something. Think about it: if Lucy and I had been there when Wescott came, he wouldn't have come anywhere near you, and if he'd been dumb enough to try, he would've had to go through me first."

"You can't know that for sure, Danny. And believe me, I know how lucky I am, but I also believe that it all happened exactly as it did for a reason. If Wescott hadn't come and left his fingerprints on the window, he might have been able to hurt someone else before you found him."

"I really wanted to hurt him today," he admitted reluctantly. "Mac and Flack took point on the takedown, but a part of me hoped he would do something stupid so I could have a justifiable reason to shoot him."

"I understand that desire, but what good would it have done other than create a lot of paperwork for you and I know how much you _love_ paperwork," she responded sarcastically. When her joke didn't have the desired effect, she sighed and tried again. "Look Danny, I think we should view this as another learning experience life has decided to throw at us. Every hurdle we've come across in the past, it only strengthened us as a couple and then as a family once Lucy came along."

He looked at her in disbelief. "And what was the lesson here: don't stay alone at a hospital in case someone comes to kill you? Or maybe that we should never run for political office?"

"The lesson, you jerk, is that you can't control life, you can only control how you choose to respond to what gets thrown your way. The best thing we can do right now is to get back to life as normal, to keep doing what we've been doing and not let what happened change who we are as a family. I'm not saying we forget, but we put it behind us and move on. And if, God forbid, something like this happens again, we'll know what to do because you did it right the first time."

Danny stayed silent for a few moments, letting Lindsay's words sink in. "Geez Montana, when the hell did you get to be so smart?"

There was her Danny. Lindsay whacked him lightly on the chest for the sass but then she started to laugh, which just confused him. "What?"

"I feel like I've entered a time warp: you've called me Montana twice today and you've got your glasses on too, which I'm not used to anymore." Suddenly a light bulb went off in Lindsay's head and she realized there was more to the time warp than just those two things. "If you paired up 'Montana' and your glasses with hospitals and head wounds, what do you think of Danny?"

His confusion lasted only a few more seconds before he figured it out. "Our first kiss," he responded before breaking out into a wide grin.

She gave him a matching grin. "That feels like it was eons ago and in a way I guess it was. We've both grown so much since then."

"Yeah. Did you ever think we'd be where we are today back then, back when we were flirting like teenagers and trying to fight our feelings?" It had been a while since they'd talked about those early days, but both knew that was exactly what they'd been doing at the time.

"Honestly, no. I wasn't thinking that far ahead. All the thoughts about the future came once we got together." She smiled up at him. "How about you?"

He cocked an eyebrow at her. "C'mon Linds, you remember what I was like back then, being married and having a kid were the last things on my mind. But what I did know back then – hell, what I knew from the moment we met – was that you were different from every other girl I'd ever met, and because of that my priorities started to change once I realized that I was falling for you. I wouldn't trade what we have – you, me and Lucy – for anything in the world."

"Right back at you, Danny."

Ever mindful of her head, Danny leaned forward and kissed her sweetly. "Oh, and I'm sorry about earlier. I know I got a little carried away with watching you like a hawk, but I wish you wouldn't push yourself so much."

"And I'm sorry for getting all bitchy on you when you were just worried about me. How's about we come to a compromise: if I promise to take it easy and be smart, will you let me walk places under my own steam and only give me help if I ask for it?"

He nodded. "I can do that."

"Good. Now I think it's time to go back to sleep because I'm still a little tired from yesterday. I find it harder to get a restful night of sleep when I'm on my own."

"I think I know what you mean," he said with a knowing smile.

Sharing one last kiss, they settled back down in bed, Danny turning onto his side and curling up at Lindsay's back.

"I love you Montana."

"I love you too cowboy."

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**And there you have it. Thank you so much for reading and have a good morning/afternoon/evening/night!**

**unlikelyRLshipper**


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